Writing, Teaching, & Research

About

My name is Cody; I’m a writer.

I grew up in the California high desert and moved into Los Angeles proper to attend California State University, Northridge, where I earned a BA in English and an MA in English with a Creative Writing focus. Looking to continue my studies and to experience something radically different than LA, I moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where I am currently pursuing my PhD in English at the University of North Dakota.

As a writer, my interests and experiences vary pretty widely. While I’m invested in my creative endeavors, I also enjoy writing for public audiences, whether that crafting marketing materials or covering tech news. I’m a pretty firm believer in the notion that language is the most flexible medium, and I’m interested in all the shapes it can take and tasks it can accomplish.

In my poetry, I’m invested in the power of the personal lyric and its ability to transcend the apparently mundane. To that end, I am invested in poetry of place, often exploring the connections between physical geographies and inner geographies. I’m currently at work on my next collection.

In my scholarship, I am primarily interested in 20th and 21st century American literature, trans-Atlantic Modernism, and contemporary poetry and poetics, though I read pretty widely. I have a special affinity for contemporary Japanese fiction. The authors I return to most often are Wallace Stevens, Louise Glück, Charles Wright, and Haruki Murakami. Currently, I’m writing about Wallace Stevens’ long poems and Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods. I’m also dabbling some in writing about pop culture and TV serial narrative. And, as always, I’m re-reading a Murakami novel.

When I’m not reading or writing, I like taking long drives on twisty roads (or tinkering with cars that do that), prowling for good sushi with my wife, playing video games, or doing outdoor stuff.